Bloody Power Struggles continue in Disputed Territories

No one that Al-Monitor spoke with — including the police chief, mayor and other local officials — had any idea when the agreement would be implemented.

The head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan for the province, a man known to the local population as Mullah Kareem, spoke to Al-Monitor about security concerns, including the kidnappings of several hundred mostly Arab residents over the past year. He said that there are “1,500 members of the police force" in the area, adding, "So if this many kidnappings, specifically of Sunni Arabs, are happening, not only do they know about it, but they are involved in it.”

The Popular Mobilization Units' spokesman for the northern part of Iraq, Ali Hashem al-Hosseini from the Shiite Badr militia, instead insisted to Al-Monitor in an interview that “Kurds and the PMU are like brothers.”

He went on, “We were both armed opposition forces” during the time of Saddam Hussein, he said, adding, “And even if there are problems, it’s like problems within a family. It’s normal. But in any operation we take part in, we are accused of burning, kidnapping, looting.” Hosseini claimed that “Gulf states” had accused them of taking part in atrocities in Fallujah.

“Everyone knows that the PMU are exposed to a fierce media campaign to ruin their reputation,” he claimed.

(Conflict image via Shutterstock)